1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present general inventive concept relate to an image forming apparatus and a control method thereof to reduce and/or prevent interior contamination of the image forming apparatus due to scattering of waste developer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an image forming apparatus is designed to print a black-and-white image or a color image on a printing medium, such as paper. In an operation of the image forming apparatus, light is irradiated onto a photoconductor that is charged with a uniform electric potential, causing an electrostatic latent image to be formed on the photoconductor. After the electrostatic latent image is developed into a visible image of a predetermined color via a developing unit, the resulting visible image is then transferred and fused onto a sheet of paper.
To print a color image, the image forming apparatus usually uses yellow, magenta, cyan, and black developers. Therefore, the image forming apparatus may include four developing units to respectively develop the developers of four colors. In this case, color image forming methods are classified into a single-path method in which four exposure units and four photoconductors are provided, and a multi-path method in which a single exposure unit and a single photoconductor are provided.
As a type of the image forming apparatus, an electro-photographic image forming apparatus generally adopts an image forming method including a charge operation, an exposure operation, a developing operation, a transfer operation, and a fusing operation.